Karzog's body hits the ground with a lifeless thud. Those
of you on the ground feel the impact through your boots. As you are checking to see how everyone
fared, you feel another shudder through your feet. This one is larger and longer. Looking around for the source, you notice that
the churning, swirling misty walls of this realm are still. Gone also are the tormented and twisted faces
and figures. Chalking it up to the fact
that Karzog's grip over the realm is gone you continue with the 'after battle
checklist.' Henrik scoops up Golian's body, D'Argo and Pirozzi scour the wizards body and morbidly cut a few ioun stone from his corpse.
After a moment of calm, you hear a deep rumble followed
quickly by a very loud sound of stone cracking.
You do not feel this as much through your feet, but more with your whole
body as the floor on which you are standing pitches a few degrees. The previously still misty walls are now
slowly spinning and appear to be being drawn down to a point far below you. The
floor lurches back to level and continues beyond in the other direction.
Large cracks start to appear in and between the stone
floor tiles. The swirling of the smoky
walls increases in speed. Someone yells for everyone to hurry up. Pirozzi and
Wolfgar start pounding on the gem floating above the now dry pool. They are doing some damage, but if shattering
it is the key, you are not sure they will accomplish it in time.
Soon the swirling walls start to close in on the area
delineated by the stone floor. Tiles at
the edge start to fall away as the floor begins to pitch more quickly and
dramatically. Gouts of flame start to randomly
shoot through the mists of the walls, some coming close enough for you to feel
their immense heat. You gather near the
pool and notice that its water has drained away. Chunks of stone have been picked up by the now
near gale force winds. You have to
actively dodge some of the larger pieces.
The flames are hotter and nearer, singing your hair. All the while the floor continues to pitch
and roll as it rapidly falls away at the edges.
In a flash of light, the last of the floor falls away as the remains of
the well crumble. You feel yourself
caught up in the winds. You lose sight of everything else as you feel burnt by
the flames and bruised by the buffets of pieces of stone as you are pulled
round and down to some far away point.
You catch sight of a blue-green sphere far below you that
seems to be the source (or perhaps destination) of the turbulent funnel. Your flesh is burning from the heat and what
isn't, is bruised and bleeding from being bombarded by cart-sized pieces of
stone. You feel near death. The sphere
looms ever closer. It is immense -
larger than you ever imagined. You are
pulled faster and faster toward it. You
brace yourself or impact. Everything goes dark.
The light returns.
You find yourself floating high above the city of Xin Shalast encased a
cool, soothing layer of mist. Your burns
and bruises are healing. At varying
distances, you can make out other figures similarly floating, although you
cannot make out enough details to determine who it might be. You cannot account for all your companions. Soon
the rumbling returns. You direct your
view to the city below. You notice the
massive buildings begin to sway and crumble.
Enormous cracks start to appear in the mountain walls surrounding the
city revealing a red glow deep within. As the earth continues to shake,
house-sized boulders let loose from the mountain and pummel the city. Buildings continue to fall. Magma starts pouring from the crevasses and
flows into the heart of the city below.
Soon a crack that follows the Golden Road starts to
appear. It stretches nearly the length
of the entire city. As it continues to widen,
you begin to see a dark, swirling mass deep within. It appears to be smoke, mist, or water with
chaotic, spinning swirls of dark blues, purples and blacks. As the buildings continue to fall, the lava begins
to fill the lower elevations of the city. It soon reaches the top of the ever
widening chasm in the center. You watch as the molten rock begins to pour over
the top of what remains of the Golden Road and plummets into the chasm. Just as the first of the lava hits the dark,
swirling mass, there is an unbelievable release of energy.
You witness in horror, as you are unable to avoid the
massive fireball that escapes from the chasm.
Everything goes dark.
.